Why do some kinds of conversations seems to flow really easily, while other times, it feels like you can’t get a word in edgewise, or that the other person isn’t holding up their en...
2019-12-19 21:49:36 +0000 UTC View Post
We all know cows go 'moo', sheep go 'baa' and ducks go 'queck'... well medieval English ducks did. Dutch cows go 'boe' /bu/ and Korean sheep go 음매 (eum-mae). What is it about sounds...
2019-12-06 01:28:22 +0000 UTC View Post
In English you have one book, and three books. In Arabic you have one kitaab, and three kutub. In Nepali it’s one kitab, and three kitabharu, but sometimes it’s three kitab.
In this episo...
2019-11-21 23:59:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Like many linguists, we have a difficult time turning the linguist part of our brains off -- which makes reading fiction particularly fun! Sometimes we're lucky enough that there's fiction that fea...
2019-11-07 22:31:38 +0000 UTC View Post
What’s your favourite smell? You might say something like the smell of fresh ripe strawberries, or the smell of freshly-cut grass. But if we asked what your favourite colour is, you m...
2019-10-17 22:21:36 +0000 UTC View Post
We are delighted to announce that by popular demand, you can now get ...
2019-10-17 04:53:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Not everyone has a surname, but for many people surnames are a personal or cultural story wrapped up in a convenient little package.
In this bonus episode we get enthusiastic about surn...
2019-10-04 00:38:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Larger, national signed languages, like American Sign Language and British Sign Language, often have relatively well-established laboratory-based research traditions, whereas smaller signed languag...
2019-09-20 01:28:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Our cohost Gretchen McCulloch wrote a book about internet linguistics (in case you haven't heard haha) which hit the New York Times bestseller list the first week it was out! We've been enjoying se...
2019-09-05 23:10:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes a syllable is jam-packed with sounds, like the single-syllable word “strengths”. Other times, a syllable is as simple as a single vowel or consonant+vowel, like the t...
2019-08-16 00:45:48 +0000 UTC View Post
We just wanted to let any procrastinators know that you have one more day to upgrade to the new "ling-phabet" tier and get a free signed BECAUSE INTERNET bookplate sent to you in the mail! 2019-08-14 21:15:17 +0000 UTC View Post
We're taking you on a journey to new linguistic destinations, so come along for the ride and don't forget to hold on!
In this bonus episode, we get enthusiastic about metaphors! It's ea...
2019-08-01 23:40:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Emoji make a lot of headlines, but what happens when you actually drill down into the data for how people integrate emoji into our everyday messages? It turns out that how we use e...
2019-07-18 23:25:05 +0000 UTC View Post
People have been asking, is there a way that we can support Lingthusiasm for a bit more per month than the bonus episodes tier?
People have also been asking, is there a way to get a sig...
2019-07-11 18:29:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Do you have any words that you only use within your family? We asked this question on social media a while back and you had some great responses!
In this episode, we get enthusiastic ab...
2019-07-04 23:48:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Why does “gh” make different sounds in “though” “through” “laugh” “light” and “ghost”? Why is there a silent “k” at the beginning of words like “know...
2019-06-20 23:10:34 +0000 UTC View Post
When you're giving directions, do you tell someone to turn left, turn north, turn towards the sea? Different languages favour different strategies, and sometimes even people who speak the same lang...
2019-06-06 23:55:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes, you know something for sure. You were there. You witnessed it. And you want to make sure that anyone who hears about it from you knows that you’re a direct source. Other ti...
2019-05-16 23:12:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Wouldn't it be cool if we could teach animals to have conversations with humans? Well, alright, that's a bit ambitious -- what if we just teach animals to understand us? Okay, perhaps that's too mu...
2019-05-03 00:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post
A new round of Lingthusiasm merch is here! A new round of nerdy scarves and children's clothes, plus expanding all...
2019-05-03 00:13:33 +0000 UTC View Post
When a language is shifting from being spoken by a whole community to being spoken only by older people, it’s crucial to get the kids engaged with the language again. But kids don’t...
2019-04-19 00:22:08 +0000 UTC View Post
People on the radio have to say a lot of names of people and places which they might not be familiar with -- how do they know how to pronounce them all correctly?
It's actually someone'...
2019-04-04 22:18:52 +0000 UTC View Post
When you describe to someone a ball bouncing down a hill, one of the easiest ways to make it really clear just how much the ball bounced would be to gesture the way that it made its way downwards. ...
2019-03-21 22:20:33 +0000 UTC View Post
When you talk to someone who speaks a different version of English than you do, do you keep talking the way you do otherwise or do you find yourself slightly edging towards the way they speak? What...
2019-03-07 22:31:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Some sentences have a lot of words all relating to each other, while other sentences only have a few. The verb is the thing that makes the biggest difference: it’s what makes “I gave you the bo...
2019-02-22 02:31:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Have you ever wondered where emoji come from? Why does ending a text with a period make people think you’re mad at them? Why doesn’t “lol” mean “laughing out loud” anymore?
The Rift Valley area of central and northern Tanzania is the only area where languages from all four African language families are found (Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, and Khoisan). Languages in this a...
2019-01-18 02:08:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a riddle:
Everyone has one, but I use yours more than I use my own.
What is it?
A name!
Naming a brand-new tiny human is a big linguistic task. They...
2019-01-03 12:40:36 +0000 UTC View Post
There are certain things that human societies, and therefore languages, have in common. We have the same basic inventory of body parts, which affect both the kinds of movements we can make to produ...
2018-12-20 20:18:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Thank you for sending in all your great questions for this special bonus Q&A episode!
We answer your questions about linguistics games, very old words, using video to do linguistic ...
2018-12-07 00:14:03 +0000 UTC View Post